


west coast winter

by stonerbughead



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bughead Secret Santa, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Mild Smut, Mutual Pining, Recreational Drug Use, Roommates, because if there isn’t a joint is it really my story?, christmas in california, tropes on tropes on tropes (you get the idea)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:13:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21941959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonerbughead/pseuds/stonerbughead
Summary: Jughead stops and stares at Betty, trying to figure out his next move. Whether intentional or not, Betty has managed to stop them directly under the same mistletoe that Veronica had caught Archie under just hours earlier.Or: Betty and Jughead are just friends, always have been. But since Thanksgiving, when their friends passed out early and left them alone with a half-full bottle of Lodge family rum, the two roommates have added “benefits” to the mix.a bughead secret santa gift for @bugggghead
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge (background), Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Joaquin DeSantos/Kevin Keller (Background)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 196
Collections: 6th Bughead Fanfiction Awards - Nominees, Bughead Secret Santa, Home for the HoliDale





	west coast winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamsofdramione](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsofdramione/gifts).



> my dear bugggghead,
> 
> Okay, first of all, can I just say that the real War on Christmas is the fact that there are multiple lost tumblr asks floating in the ether that never delivered to you? Bah hambug!
> 
> But anyway, I was so honored to be your Secret Santa this year! As I think I said in my first ask, you are so talented and such a light that we are so lucky to have in this fandom. 
> 
> I hope this tropey little fic is everything you wanted and more! I had so much fun writing it for you.
> 
> Sending you lots of love and wishes for a beautiful holiday and happy new year,  
> Maria aka stonerbughead

* * *

  


_It's Christmas in California_

_And it's hard to ignore that it feels like summer all the time_

_But I'll take a west coast winter to remove my splinters_

_It's good to be alive_

_**before** _

**_~_ **

It feels to Betty like Christmas has come early this year. 

Paused for a moment in the front seat of the car, she’s momentarily distracted by all the things she has yet to finish before the new year begins. _This is exactly what your therapist told you not to do over the holidays_.

“Betty, a little help back here!”

Jerked out of her quickly-spiraling thoughts, Betty pops the trunk and bounds around the side of the car to meet Jughead, already lifting reusable tote bags filled with gifts and containers of food. 

“Sorry!” she says hastily, grabbing the bags Jughead hands to her.

“You okay?” he asks, his piercing blue eyes raking her with concern. He’s outfitted in his normal Christmas Eve get-up: his signature red flannel with a black t-shirt underneath, dark jeans and sneakers. 

“Of course,” Betty says, stepping back as Jughead closes the trunk. The pair walk up the sidewalk, stopping for a moment to admire the brushing of white flakes that covers Veronica’s pristine front lawn. 

“She sprung for the fake snow again, huh?” Jughead says, shaking his head and laughing as he glances down the street at the neighbors’ comparably-bare lawns. 

“She’ll always be a New York girl at heart,” Betty says, laughing.

Jughead lifts one of the bags to his nose and sniffs appreciatively. “You outdid yourself this year, Betty. This smells delicious.”

“With all the thanks to my sous-chef,” she says, winking at him. 

“You’re generous with your credit, Betty Cooper,” he says. “You think Veronica actually cooked her portion, or is she gonna try to pass off another five-star dish as her own handiwork?” 

Betty laughs. “It’s anybody’s game, really.”

“Remember the time she made us go to Tahoe for Christmas so we could see actual snow?” Jughead says, pausing on the front walkway to adjust his grip as Betty waits for him with a huge grin on her face.

“Why, yes,” Betty says. “We learned that we hate skiing and love the excuse to not see our parents on Christmas Day.” _And Jughead looked really cute in his sweater._

“Exactly,” Jughead says, laughing and following Betty to the front door of Veronica’s absurdly grand house, a college graduation gift from her parents. “We gotta make _that_ into a tradition,” he says as Betty fishes out her spare key and lets them in.

“Archie definitely got his hands on the playlist,” Jughead quips as they pass through the living room to the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” blaring through the expensive speakers.

Sure enough, Veronica’s lovable and goofy college boyfriend stands out of the way in the corner of the giant kitchen, wiggling his hips and playing air guitar along with Bruce. 

“Betty! Jughead!” he says cheerily when he notices them entering the kitchen. He reaches to help with some of the Tupperware, which they hand him gratefully. Veronica whips around from where she’s _actually_ stirring something on the stove, extra dramatic as her apron dusted with sparkly gold ruffles flounces in the air. 

“You’re late,” she says in a matter-of-fact tone, though there’s a twinkle in her eye that Betty knows is reserved for only her oldest friends. 

“But we brought like, half the dinner,” Jughead counters as he accepts Veronica’s hug. 

“Yes,” Veronica agrees as she releases Jughead and takes Betty in her embrace. “Thanks Betty.”

Betty laughs. “Hey, Jug helped,” she insists, eyeing Veronica’s outfit as they separate and Veronica returns to the stove. “What happens if you get anything on that fancy apron?”

Veronica laughs heartily. “I won’t, B.”

Betty and Jughead exchange an amused look, the same one they’ve been shooting each other since Veronica Lodge first came bursting into their lives all those years ago.

“Hey, where’s Kevin?” Jughead asks. “Did he bring Joaquin again?”

“They’re setting the table for me in the dining room,” Veronica explains. 

“I’m gonna go say hey,” Jughead says, walking through the house as Betty joins Archie in sorting the Tupperwares they’d brought. 

Betty’s grateful that first Veronica’s partner and now Kevin’s have meshed themselves so easily into their friend group. Veronica, Kevin, Betty, and Jughead have all been close friends since middle school, when Veronica moved to their small town in California from New York City. She had insisted on becoming Betty’s best friend from the first day of sixth grade and Betty, whose closest friends had been Kevin and Jughead since they were all put in the same high-level spelling group in the second grade, happily accepted the friendship of this glamorous and affectionate girl.

As Archie starts bringing the first round of appetizers into the living room, Betty sets to work tying her own well-worn apron around her waist and joining Veronica at the counter. Veronica vents about her new client at work while Betty occasionally interrupts to redirect Veronica’s actions. Betty feels like they’re in a good rhythm and soon all the timers have been set and everything is in its rightful place on the stove or in the oven.

“You two are impressive,” Jughead says, returning to the kitchen with Archie, only now they both have ciders in hand.

“You gonna crack a couple of those open for us?” Betty says without skipping a beat.

Jughead raises his eyebrow but quickly pulls two out of the fridge and uncaps them with a lighter he fishes out of his pocket. “As you wish, Vixens,” he jokes.

“Nice one,” Archie says, nudging Jughead with his arm. “Veronica showed me her old Vixens uniform…”

Veronica raises an eyebrow suggestively and opens her mouth to retort but the smirk on her face has Betty quickly interjecting, “Alright, we can imagine well enough for ourselves, thank you!” She shoves a plate of appetizers into Veronica’s arms. “Take that into the living room? I’ll bring up the rear.”

“Nice save,” Jughead says in Betty’s ear as he carries her cider and everyone finally settles themselves onto the living room couches with Kevin and Joaquin.

“Y’all have outdone yourselves,” Kevin says appreciatively as he munches on a piece of bruschetta. “Oh, by the way, I brought you two something for your tree.” He points at Veronica and Archie, sitting very closely together on the couch opposite Kevin. They’ve been inseparable since they met sophomore year of college, moving in together right after graduation when the Lodges gifted the house.

Kevin, who had gone to NYU and stayed in New York afterwards, presents a ball ornament hand-painted with the New York City skyline. “We saw this at one of the holiday markets and couldn’t resist.”

“Kevin! It’s perfect!” Veronica gushes. “Archie, be a doll and put it on the tree for me?”

Kevin follows, apparently full of opinions about how to reorganize the tree to best include the new ornament. Jughead drifts over to the tree to spectate and heckle, leaving Betty and Veronica with Kevin’s new boyfriend. He’d been introduced for the first time the month before at Thanksgiving. As such, Veronica is still in semi-interrogation mode, which Betty can tell that Joaquin finds endlessly amusing.

“So, Kev was telling me on the flight that Christmas Eve is kind of a tradition for you guys,” he says, popping walnuts into his mouth. “Nice cheese plate, Vee,” he adds.

“Suck-up,” Betty jokes and Joaquin smiles appreciatively but doesn’t correct her. 

Veronica quickly moves to sit beside Betty, excitement washing over her face as she begins telling the story. “The tradition started the first year my family moved out here from New York. I was so bummed when I realized we wouldn’t get any snow on Christmas, and Kevin and Betty and Jughead tried to cheer me up by thinking of fun things we could do together. I ended up asking my parents if they could all come over on Christmas Eve and well, the rest is history. They made this place feel like home.” She squeezes Betty’s hand and rests her head on her friend’s shoulder.

Betty smiles, patting Veronica affectionately on the head. “We’ve all spent Christmas Eve at Vee’s ever since. Now that we’re semi-adults,” she winces—at 25, she still doesn’t feel like a grown-up—“it’s mostly just drinking, eating, and exchanging gifts.”

“And smoking,” Veronica adds, and they all laugh. “Kevin requested that we pick up _quite_ the hefty order from the dispensary for him.”

“As if we don’t send him weed every month,” Betty rolls her eyes and they all laugh. 

Veronica asks Joaquin a question about his work, and Betty lets her attention drift away from the conversation and instead on Jughead, Archie, and Kevin standing and laughing near the Christmas tree. Kevin is hard at work rearranging ornaments and directing the other two. Jughead puts his drink down on the mantle and lifts his arm to move an ornament where Kevin directs him, the back of his t-shirt riding up and exposing a patch of toned skin.

Betty bites her lip. Just a little higher up his back, she knows, are a series of scratch marks she’d left behind the night before. 

She can still hear her moans as he pounded into her, the sigh of ecstatic relief in her ear when he came. 

* * *

_It had all started in this very room._

_Just a little under a month earlier, the same group had gathered at Veronica’s for Thanksgiving. Everyone but Betty and Jughead had started the day drinking early and—done in by a drinking game Joaquin and Kevin insisted on teaching everyone after dinner—passed out early._

_Betty and Jughead were the last ones left, sitting beside each other on the couch, ostensibly waiting for one of them to sober up enough to drive the twenty minutes back to their shared apartment. (Despite Veronica’s insistence that they crash in her spare bedrooms, Jughead had insisted they could drive home if Betty would feel more comfortable that way.)_

_She’d agreed at the time, yet Betty suddenly felt like she was having a staring contest with the half-full bottle of Lodge family rum sitting on the coffee table before them. “I get why the Lodges have so much money,” she said._

_Jughead laughed heartily and Betty could tell he was still a little drunk too. “Because they own multiple companies, you mean?”_

_“Because this rum is so good!” Betty countered. She sat up and before she knew what she was doing, poured herself another glass. She lunged forward to take his empty cup and fill it, too._

_“Whoa!” Jughead said, trying to grab it out of her hands. A stream of brown liquid spilled onto Jughead’s shirt as they collided._

_“Fuck,” Betty said, running a hand over the growing stain on his dark green t-shirt. She bit her lip involuntarily at the feel of how toned his chest was underneath the fabric._

_He looked up at her, their eyes locking in an intensity she’d never felt between them before. Wordlessly, Jughead took the cup out of her hand and placed it back on the coffee table._

_Before either of them could overthink or argue or question it, Jughead placed his hands on her cheeks and leaned in to capture her lips with his own._

_It was intoxicating and quickly turned passionate, frantic, as Betty let her still-lingering hands drift underneath his t-shirt, as she pulled it off his torso with a giggle, as they stared at each other’s naked bodies on the couch, as Jughead nosed his way between her legs, making Betty see stars with the masterful flick of his tongue. As he pulled a condom out of his wallet and whispered, “is this okay?” in her ear before finally plunging into her with a hurried kiss on the lips._

_It was the night their nearly life-long friendship transformed forever, both of them unsure what exactly they were giving in to as the label quietly changed from “roommates who are just friends” to “roommates who are friends with benefits.”_

* * *

Jughead now knows more about Archie’s band than he ever wanted. He nods and smiles as he shoves fancy cheese and crackers into his mouth, thankful as always for Veronica’s meticulously-curated charcuterie plates.

Betty meets his eye from where she’s still sitting with Joaquin and Veronica and tilts her head in their direction. She knows him so well. Too well, he thinks sometimes. 

Jughead clears his throat and waits for a gap in conversation. (Kevin has completely tuned Archie out as he finishes his grand rearranging project on Archie and Veronica’s Christmas tree.) “I, uh, think the girls want us to go back over there,” Jughead says, noticing Veronica glancing their way too.

“You’re perceptive as fuck, dude,” Archie says, clapping him on the back as they move to rejoin the rest of the group on the couches.

Veronica stands up almost immediately, pulling Archie toward the kitchen before pointing at the mistletoe hung in the pathway between the two rooms. “Got you, Archiekins,” she coos and Jughead focuses on a spot on the rug in an attempt not to laugh. Betty gives him a light slap on the arm.

“Mind-reader,” he hisses at her.

“Be nice,” she hisses back.

“Kevin, come on. It looks great!” Joaquin insists at his boyfriend. Kevin finally returns to Joaquin’s side, conceding with a sigh that it’s “as good as it’s gonna get, at least,” which earns him a glare from Veronica as she and Archie resettle themselves on the couch.

“So,” Betty says, cutting in loudly. “Did you all know Jughead is working on a new manuscript?”

Jughead blushes and rolls his eyes. “Really, Betts?”

Betty shrugs, taking a sip of her cider with a little wink. 

“What’s this one about, Jug?” Kevin asks. 

“Alright,” Jughead says, sighing and giving in. “So it’s a mystery but there’s also a central love story, which is kind of new territory for me.”

“Smart,” Veronica says. “The girls will love it.”

“It’s set in the 1920s. You _know_ I had to get a noir story out of my system, and when better to do that than early in my career?” Jughead says sardonically as they all laugh. Even as a child, Jughead’s penchant for the dramatic had been infamous.

“It’s so good!” Betty adds enthusiastically, as if she’d been holding the thought in with great difficulty and just couldn’t contain herself any longer.

“Wait, you’ve read it already?” Veronica says, surprised.

“Betty’s always been the first person to read my work,” Jughead says in a very matter-of-fact tone. _Everyone knows this. Right?_

“It’s true,” Kevin says. “Like, since-second-grade true.”

Jughead’s face suddenly feels hot, his mind wandering where it’s not supposed to when he’s sitting in mixed company. Back to Betty’s bed, a place he now knows intimately well, to the heaving of her breasts underneath him as they’d fucked the night before. And to their couch, no longer just a place to get high after work and eat pizza...

* * *

_The first time Jughead realized he was completely fucked was the third time they indulged in “benefits.”_

_It had all started out innocently enough, Schitt’s Creek playing on their TV while they giggled and passed a joint back and forth. But only a couple minutes after they snuffed it out, Jughead found himself underneath a frantically grinding and eager Betty Cooper, both their shirts off as they sunk deeper and deeper into the couch._

_He appreciated her willingness to be dominant; it was only the third time they’d done this, after all, and this was the first time she’d taken the lead. He found it incredibly sexy and couldn’t get enough of the kisses they were trading. She eventually pulled her pajama pants off and kissed her way down his chest to remove his own. As she took him in her mouth, tasting him with gusto, as she mounted him, whispering sinfully dirty things in his ear when he finally entered her right there on their couch, he thought it was quite possibly the hottest thing that had ever happened to him._

_He circled her clit with his thumb as she rode him, her panting against his neck and enthusiastic shrieks sending him over the edge only a few seconds after her second orgasm. She took a second to catch her breath against his chest and he couldn’t help but kiss her shoulder, her cheek, a spot in the crook of her neck._

_Betty finally lifted herself off him, wiping her hair back from her face and shooting him a shy, guilty look. “I’m just gonna go pee,” she said. “But I’ll bring back snacks.”_

_Jughead cleared his throat, remembering to put his normal friendly voice back on now that they were no longer in the throes of passion. This arrangement felt more and more complicated with every encounter. “Yes! You’re the best,” he finally managed to say before she disappeared into their bathroom._

_After disposing of the condom, Jughead lay on the couch. Alone, he allowed himself to bask in the afterglow of the orgasm, the image of Betty’s warm smile as she hopped up afterwards burned into his brain. The only way he could articulate this feeling, what came floating into his overthinking mind:_ this, right here, is perfect. 

_There it was. He’d dared to think it._

_Jughead practically bolted up at the thought, eyes widening. It occurred to him that the attraction to Betty Cooper wasn’t completely foreign territory. After all, as a kid he’d had a hopeless crush on her for as long as he could remember. Years later, Betty’s high school boyfriend and his high school girlfriend and a couple college flings had managed to convince Jughead that he and Betty were better off as friends._

_But now he wasn’t so sure._

* * *

Betty and Veronica are pulling things out of the oven and off the stove when Joaquin and Kevin corner them in the kitchen.

“Everything ready to be plated?” Kevin asks innocently.

“Yes…” Betty says. “What’s your agenda?” she asks knowingly when he continues to give them both challenging stares.

“Betty, you’re such a neat freak that you’ll insist on cleaning after dinner no matter what we say or do, right?” Kevin asks.

Betty sighs and nods. “Yes,” she admits guiltily. Veronica laughs and shakes her head.

“And you both cooked!” Kevin insists. “So please step aside and let us plate and serve everything for you. It’s the least we can do.” Joaquin nods enthusiastically beside Kevin.

Betty smiles gratefully. “Aw, you two are so cute,” she says. She unties her apron and hands it to Joaquin. “I wouldn’t mind sitting down.” 

“You can _not_ use my apron,” Veronica says as she unties her own and eyes them suspiciously. “But if you want to serve, be my guest.” 

Once the six of them are happily sitting around the dining room table devouring the veritable feast Betty and Veronica had prepared, Kevin insists on his obligatory review of the year’s pop culture. His usual lecture soon winds back around to his “own journey” and, by extension, “the journey of everyone around me.”

“You know what I think would be _really_ cathartic this year?” he gushes, throwing an arm around Joaquin. 

“Kev, how many drinks have you had?” Jughead jokes but Kevin is nothing if not persistent.

“If we each presented our most embarrassing moment of this horrid year 2019.”

“Of which we have like, another full week, but go on,” Jughead says. Betty laughs through her bite of lasagna at his side.

“–and then _leave it behind_ , in this year,” Kevin shoots Jughead a menacing look and Betty practically chokes on her roll. Ever since she and Jug started having sex, she feels even more attune to his interactions, if that was even possible. She’d long realized that if there’s anyone in this world who knows her for who she really is, it’s Jughead.

“You okay?” Jughead whispers to Betty, and she nods while sipping her water gratefully. Veronica and Archie laugh at the entire exchange.

“As I was saying,” Kevin says. “It will make us all feel cleansed as we move into 2020.”

“Well, I know what mine would be,” Betty says. Jughead shoots her a puzzled look but she sends him a knowing one back. He won’t be confused for long.

“It _has_ to be the time I fainted at that panel I was covering at PitchFest,” she explains. Jughead laughs immediately, recognition in his eyes.

“What made you faint?” Joaquin asks, intrigued.

“It was a combination of overexhaustion, being overheated in a super-crowded room at a panel that had gone on like, a half hour longer than it was supposed to, and very low blood sugar,” Betty says. “I woke up in a medic tent twenty minutes later with Jughead talking to an EMT.” 

“Jughead?” Joaquin says, confused.

“He’s my emergency contact,” Betty says, as if this is a-given. “Since he’s my roommate,” she quickly adds. “Anyway, thankfully he works very close to the convention center. And he took me home. Thanks for that,” she adds, turning to Jughead sitting next to her.

“You are very welcome,” he says with a genuine grin, the one that always makes her stomach tighten with anticipation. 

“And I’m really hoping that heat exhaustion and skipping meals are things I can leave behind in 2019, since I start a new job in 2020, at a publication that actually has a union!” Betty says, raising her beer glass. 

Veronica cheers. “Yeah, girl!” 

“Hey, I’m gonna get seconds,” Archie says, standing up. “Anyone else want anything while I’m in the kitchen? Ronnie?”

Veronica shakes her head as she picks at her salad. “I’m good for now, babe.”

Betty sneaks a glance at Jughead’s empty plate and shoots him another knowing look. He returns a guilty grin before passing his plate to Archie and conceding, “Actually, that would be great, buddy.”

“No problem, man,” Archie says, disappearing into the kitchen.

“Speaking of 2019 ending,” Kevin says. “I truly can’t believe you two hot commodities are gonna be ringing in the new year single!” He points at Betty and Jughead, who both turn red immediately.

“That’s very true, Kevin,” Veronica says, sipping her cider. “We’ll have to set you up with people in the new year.”

“Any ideas, Vee?” Kevin says, his eyes lighting up.

Betty can feel that her face is still hot. She’s afraid to look at Jughead but finally sneaks a nervous glance his way to find him purposefully averting his eyes from hers. _Shit._

* * *

_Betty’s final therapy session of the new year, fit in two days earlier before Mrs. Burble’s holiday break began, had been a hard one. Even harder because she couldn’t call either Veronica or Jughead to debrief, as she tended to do after especially emotional therapy sessions._

_“This year you overcame a lot, Betty,” Mrs. Burble said proudly. “You identified that your job wasn’t making you happy anymore, you overcame your fears about leaving your first job and applied to new ones. You nailed your interview and accepted a job offer that you’re excited about. And...you even found love.”_

_Betty’s look of shock must’ve been apparent because Mrs. Burble laughed and said, “Do you disagree?”_

_“I mean...I don’t know_ what _I feel about Jughead. We’re supposed to be just friends with benefits. That’s what we said.”_

_“But is that what you want, Betty?” Mrs. Burble asked, watching Betty intensely. “Because I have to say, given the amount that you’ve mentioned Jughead in the past year we’ve been working together, given the role you two fill as partners in each other’s lives, and the frequency of your intimate encounters–”_

_“Seven,” Betty said, eyes widening._

_“Seven?”_

_“That’s how many encounters there have been since Thanksgiving,” she explained, face reddening. “Oh my God. I think in my like, compartmentalizing and attempting to neutralize my last month at the job while I was wrapping everything up before the holidays...I just sort of muted my feelings for Jughead.”_

_Mrs. Burble laughed, gripping her mug of coffee and sitting back in her chair. “We both know that’s a coping mechanism of yours,” she said. “So...you_ do _think you have feelings for Jughead?”_

_“Oh, I don’t think,” Betty said, suddenly feeling confident. “I know. I...I’m in love with him.” It was both freeing and terrifying, but the second she said it aloud she was certain it was true. “I don’t even know how long I have been. Maybe awhile.” She looked up at Mrs. Burble and realized there were tears in her eyes._

_“We’re almost out of time, Betty,” she said gently. “But this holiday, I challenge you not to think too much about things you can’t control–i.e, all those worries about your new job that you mentioned earlier in our session. Don’t get caught up in hypothetical scenarios about what could go wrong. Instead, make an investment in yourself and your happiness and tell Jughead how you really feel. You never know, he might feel the exact same way.” She took another sip of her coffee as Betty wiped her eyes and stood up to leave. “In fact, I’m almost certain he does.”_

* * *

To Jughead’s eternal gratitude, Betty is able to deftly redirect the conversation about setting Betty and Jughead up with theoretical significant others before it goes much farther. _She’s always been good that way._ By the time Archie returns with Jughead’s new plate of food—which Jughead shovels gratefully into his mouth—Kevin and Veronica have transitioned to discussing their New Years Eve outfits.

The meal finally winds down and Veronica, predictably, gets her second wind and jumps up from her seat enthusiastically. “Let’s retire to the back patio for the gift exchange,” she says excitedly.

Betty stands up and begins stacking plates. “Perfect, I’ll clean up and join you when I’m done.”

Archie starts to protest, but Veronica shoves him in the direction of the backyard as they all grab drinks and the presents sitting near the door. “It’s not worth it,” she insists.

Jughead hangs back, waiting until everyone else has left before saying, “I’m drying for you.” Betty’s eyes widen. “And don’t fight me on it.”

She grins at him as he stacks first the salad plates, then the salad forks on top. “I wasn’t going to,” she says softly. 

Jughead follows her into the kitchen, his heart beating fast as they start lining dirty plates up next to the sink. “Any chance you’d let me split some of the dishwashing duty with you?”

Betty shoots him an incredulous look. “I’m sorry, I thought we had just established the other night that I am the Dishwashing Queen.”

Jughead blushes. The memory in question—the feud that wasn’t really anything but pent-up tension if either of them had stopped to think about it—ended with Jughead fucking Betty on the kitchen counter. As he’s thought pretty much every time they’ve had sex so far, Betty is the only woman he’s ever slept with who’s made him feel like this. His experience with sex before Betty had been that it was pretty cool but largely unremarkable. _Maybe I’ve just been sleeping with all the wrong people._

They enter a steady rhythm of washing and drying, loading the less-fancy plates and utensils into the dishwasher and shoving one of Veronica’s organic dishwashing pods in before starting it. Jughead offers his hand to high-five Betty and she happily slaps his hand. 

“Good job, Jones,” she says. “As always.”

Jughead’s heart hurts at the way she’s smiling at him. She grabs a cider out of the fridge. “You want one?” she asks.

Jughead nods, locking eyes with her, utterly intoxicated if he’s being honest with himself. “I will if you are.”

She grabs a plate of brownies and starts toward the back door with Jughead hot on her toes, pausing to say, “We’ll have to send the ever-helpful Joaquin and Kevin back in here to get the rest of the desserts.”

Jughead stops and stares at Betty, trying to figure out his next move. Whether intentional or not, Betty has managed to stop them directly under the same mistletoe that Veronica had caught Archie under just hours earlier. 

He can feel Betty’s gaze on him. “You coming?” she asks, clearly not having noticed. 

She seems confused by the mischievous smile on his face until he points his finger upwards, revealing the mistletoe they now stand directly under. “I’ve never known Betty Cooper to be one to abandon a holiday tradition,” Jughead says. 

_**the kiss** _

**~**

Jughead makes the first move technically, but Betty feels there’s a sound argument to be made that she tipped her head forward slightly before he cupped the back of her neck. 

It starts out as a peck but quickly becomes something more; this part, since their first time indulging a little less than a month earlier, they have no problem with. Perhaps it’s easier to express things this way. Betty can feel the emotion poured into the kiss all the way to her toes and for the first time since she left Mrs. Burble’s office, the future doesn’t feel quite so bleak. Time seems to lose its meaning as they wrap arms tightly around each other and steal greedy kisses. 

If it weren’t for Veronica’s loud shriek followed by Kevin’s exaggerated gasp and Joaquin’s cheer, who knows how long they would’ve stood under the mistletoe kissing. 

Betty and Jughead turn to find the three of them standing in the living room watching them. “Um, we were…” Veronica says, choking on her words, unable to believe she just walked in on her best friends kissing.

“Looking for weed,” Joaquin supplies, slinging his arm around Kevin. Without the weight of platonic history the rest of them share, Joaquin finds this entire situation rather amusing. 

“Right, weed,” Kevin says. “We need _a lot_ of it if we’re gonna get to the bottom of whatever _this_ is,” he says, gesturing exaggeratedly between Betty and Jughead. 

“I wanted to get more drinks, too,” Veronica finally says, brushing past them into the kitchen as if to punctuate her point. 

Betty realizes that she and Jughead still have their arms around each other and quickly drops them. Jughead follows her lead, running his hand through his hair as they back away from each other, though Betty swears she notices a disappointed look flash across his face.

“Um...let’s go out back and we’ll explain,” Betty finally says, face aflame.

“Where are you guys with that dessert?” Archie’s voice carries down the hall and soon he enters the room, confused to find the five of them standing in awkward silence. “What happened?”

_**after** _

~

Veronica’s back patio, decorated with elegant torches and decadent string lights hung with care, is unusually tense.

Kevin rolls a joint at the table as promised, while Joaquin looks on amusedly. Archie spaces out where he stands behind Veronica, sitting on an Adirondack chair like a judge presiding over a high-stakes case.

Betty and Jughead sit opposite them on the swing loveseat. Usually Jughead would appreciate any seating arrangement that forces them in such close proximity, but the eagle eyes with which Veronica fixes them are nothing short of frightening.

“How long has this been going on?” Veronica finally asks, the words like venom.

“Since Thanksgiving,” Jughead pipes up. He can feel Betty fidgeting beside him, though she relaxes momentarily when he offers this morsel of truth.

Joaquin claps his hands together, Kevin raises his eyebrows, and Veronica only narrows her eyes and leans back farther in her chair. “Fact,” she practically spits. “Three years earlier, all of us— minus Joaquin, of course—sat right here on our first Christmas Eve in this house. We were talking about how weird we all think incestuous friend groups are and how we’re thankful that’s never happened to us. We all said we didn’t get it because we’d never been attracted to each other.”

She shoots Kevin a conspiratorial look and he nods. “Yes, I remember it well. You both agreed that we felt nothing more than platonic love for each other.”

Jughead sighs, remembering that night well. The truth is, he’s always been attracted to Betty, whether he’d been willing to admit it to himself or not. He remembers convincing himself he agreed with everyone else, his heart falling just a little after Betty confidently went along with Veronica and Kevin first.

“Well, I guess I lied,” Betty says, shrugging.

Jughead is surprised she admitted that much, so he quickly adds in solidarity, “I mean, Kevin knows I had a crush on Betty when we were like...younger. Before we met you, Veronica.”

“Wow, I forgot about that,” Kevin says. “I guess I thought it was just a childhood crush.”

They shrug in the silence. The only sound comes from Kevin licking the rolling paper, which honestly, Jughead could do without hearing at this magnitude. “So, are we done?” he tries.

Veronica shakes her head. “Absolutely not, Jughead Jones! We are _not_ done yet. You two have not explained what exactly this _thing_ is!” She lowers her eyes for just a second and adds quietly, “What would happen to all of us if you broke up?”

Jughead’s anguished, rubbing his hands together and sneaking a glance at Betty, who looks equally conflicted. At this point, Jughead is absolutely certain he _does_ want more than friendship with Betty, but he’d been letting the holidays run their course, assuming that everything would come to a head soon. Preferably in their home, alone, where they could bare their souls on their own terms. He can’t confess his feelings now in front of everyone when he hasn’t even gotten a chance to tell Betty on his own yet.

He glances at Betty again, a silent _what do we say?_

She squares her shoulders and shoots him a confident look. He reads it as, _I got this._ He has a lot of experience following Betty’s lead, after all. It’s how he ever made any friends or joined the Blue and Gold in high school. How he’s gotten any of his writing to come out halfway decent.

Jughead swears that Betty was trying to shoot him a similar look minutes before, when they all filed out to the patio in weirdly aggressive silence—as if to tell him that they’ll talk when it’s just the two of them. He hopes he’s right.

* * *

_The second time they fucked was also on their couch._

_Once they got home from Veronica’s on Black Friday, hungover and exhausted, they abandoned their initial plans to put up their Christmas tree and instead hibernated for most of the day with Christmas movies playing on the TV. They’d woken up from a mid-afternoon nap to a flustered Jughead realizing that his erection was poking into Betty’s back. But what should have been awkward quickly became heated, the air charged._

_After they finished, they both sat up and just sort of paused before either made a move for the bathroom._

_“Well,” Betty said first, clearing her throat. “I guess this is a thing we do now.”_

_Jughead laughed nervously, meeting her eyes to find a warm smile covering her face._ Thank God. _“I’m not complaining,” Jughead chanced, relieved to see Betty’s smile only deepen at his words._

_“What are we gonna say to our friends?” Betty said, dropping reality into the situation with what felt like a heavy thud._

_Jughead’s eyes widened in horror at the idea of Veronica or Kevin knowing what they’d done. “Um,” he said. “I mean...what_ are _we doing even?”_

_Betty looked down into her lap, her eyes clouded with as much uncertainty as he currently felt. “I guess we’re...doing what we did before. Plus occasional sex.” She looked up and locked eyes with him. “Right?”_

_Jughead cleared his throat and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “That sounds right. So...friends with benefits, then?”_

_Betty nodded enthusiastically, relief covering her face. “Yeah, that sounds good. And...if it’s just friends with benefits, our friends don’t really_ need _to know, right?”_

_“Exactly,” Jughead said, relief evident in his tone too. “I’d be pretty embarrassed if they found out.”_

_Betty chuckled, finally getting up from the couch to clean herself up. “Can you imagine?” Before shutting the door to the bathroom, she added, “Well, let’s hope that never happens.”_

* * *

_Oops._

“Betty,” Veronica says loudly. “I _said:_ what exactly is this _thing_ between you and Jughead that we walked in on?”

Betty clears her throat. She’s been mulling it over since the second their friends caught them, and she just can’t confess her feelings for Jughead in front of this many people. She’s pictured herself doing so an admittedly embarrassing number of times since her therapy appointment and she simply _refuses_ to let it go down like this. 

So there’s only one other option.

“We’re just friends with benefits,” she says, trying to sound more confident than she feels. She hopes that Jughead has read correctly the many looks she shot his way in an attempt to convey that they would talk later, that for now it’s best to just stick to the story they’d concocted weeks earlier. “It happens sometimes, and when we ended up under the mistletoe we just decided to go with it.” She nudges Jughead’s arm on the swing chair.

“Yeah,” he says, clearing his throat awkwardly. “No one was around, and holiday tradition and all that.”

Veronica seems unconvinced, but Kevin presents the finished joint and a wrapped present to her before she can say much more. Kevin says something in her ear in a hissing whisper to seal the deal. “Fine,” Veronica concedes. “But don’t think we won’t return to this item later.”

Betty sighs in relief and tries to get lost in the gift exchange, cheering for the gorgeous necklace Archie purchased for Veronica and cackling at the gag gift Kevin got Joaquin.

(Though it’s hard to focus on Kevin’s explanation of the complicated scarf she just unwrapped when Veronica’s still eyeing she and Jughead suspiciously every two minutes.)

At a pause in activity, the only sound the crinkling of wrapping paper being shoved into a garbage bag as Kevin attempts to keep the patio clean, Veronica claps her hands together and says, “So. Who’s left?” She scans Betty and Jughead pointedly; she can feel Jug shifting in the seat beside her.

_I can’t take this anymore._

“Um, I think I left my gift for Jughead in the car,” Betty says, her voice cracking slightly. She stares at Jughead pointedly.

“I’ll join you,” he says immediately, standing up and following Betty into the house at a brisk pace, before anyone can argue with them.

“Wait…” Archie says, a very confused look painting his face as the sliding glass door closes sharply behind the pair. “So you’re telling me they weren’t already dating?”

* * *

A month ago, if anyone had told Jughead Jones that on Christmas Eve he’d be standing on Veronica’s fake-snow-covered lawn confessing feelings for Betty Cooper, he would’ve laughed in their face.

But here they stand, neither having made a move to unlock the car. After all, the gifts are definitely in the house. 

“My therapist wants me to tell the truth,” Betty finally blurts out.

Jughead chuckles, relief washing over him. “Sounds like you’re getting your money’s worth with that one.”

Betty takes a step closer to him, smiling shyly. “She...she says my entire face lights up whenever I talk about you. That you always seem to be there at my important moments. Whenever I need you.”

“This therapist,” Jughead says, clearing his throat and also taking a step forward, so that the gap between their bodies is only a few inches. “She takes detailed notes, right?”

“Right,” Betty says, gulping at the look burning in Jughead’s eyes.

“Well, then. I think we should listen to her,” he says, cupping her cheek as he gazes into her eyes. “And...she’s right. At least, she’s right about me. This whole thing, since Thanksgiving, has made me realize something.”

“What?” Betty asks. She knows what she hopes he’ll say, but that nagging, anxious voice in her head, the one she’s been trying to quiet for as long as she can remember, persists.

“That I’m in love with you,” he says, so confidently that Betty wonders how long he’s known.

“I’m in love with you too,” she whispers, both of them laughing as they realize how foolish they’ve been. “I think I’ve loved you for longer than I realized,” she says. Jughead reaches forward and brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. 

“Same,” he says. “But now...we’re not gonna waste any more time with this ‘friends with benefits’ nonsense, right?”

“Definitely not,” Betty says confidently, reaching up and kissing him, pouring into it all her relief and happiness and dreams of how good they can be together. He wraps his arms around her back, almost lifting her off the ground in his enthusiasm. She giggles into his mouth but he keeps going, kissing her cheeks and her forehead, anything he can reach. 

When they finally pull back, Betty laughs again. “You realize this means we’re gonna have to have _another_ awkward talk with our friends?” she asks, tightening her arms around his neck as she grins up at him.

“Worth it,” Jughead says, leaning down to kiss her again as Betty’s eyes float closed. 

Their friends can wait just a little longer.

_fin_


End file.
